Water, Land and People - Goulburn Broken Catchment ...

• Brays Swamp Management Plan – s173 Clause
included into the Management Plan document.
Community Program progress
Initial Environmental Assessments
• No initial Environmental Assessments were
completed.
Community Surface Water Management Planning Works
• Mosquito 8/25P – Negotiations undertaken for
the retention of a melaleuca planting adjacent to
CSWMS;
• Muckatah 2/3P and 3/8P – four landholder and
meetings attended;
• Muckatah 4P: Final alignment inspections completed
over three visits;
• Case Study: A case study for “Boring Under Native
Vegetation” policy was developed after construction
of the CSWMS was completed.
Modernisation
Staff assisted the Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal
Project works by undertaking assessments on priority
wetlands across the Shepparton Irrigation Region.
Staff had involvement in the Environmental Protection
and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) reports for
the Shepparton Irrigation Area and the Northern Victoria
Irrigation Renewal Project.
Irrigation Drain Management
Written by Greg Smith, Goulburn-Murray Water
Targets
• Drain Management and Water Quality Coordination
- Support Irrigation Areas; input to Drainwatch and
IDMOU; participate in working groups.
Progress
• Supported Irrigation Areas in drain diversion
management; input to Drainwatch community
monitoring program; and participated in working
groups;
• The total metered volume diverted from drains was
3.5GL, and it was estimated that a further 0.7GL
was diverted through unmetered drainage diversion
installations. High flow diversions accounted for less
than 0.5GL of the total diverted;
• 3.6GL was diverted from monitored drains compared
to 3.1GL outfalled, that is: 54 percent of the potential
drain outfall was diverted (compared with Water
Quality Strategy target of 50%);
• Prepared annual report on nutrient export from
irrigation drains (refer to the Monitoring Program
report for details of nutrient export from irrigation
drains).
Groundwater and Salt Management Program
Written by James Burkitt and Stephen Feiss, Goulburn-
Murray Water
Program Goal: To, where possible and justified, protect
and reclaim the Shepparton Irrigation Region’s land and
water resources from salinisation through management of the
Region’s groundwater.
Team Leader Report
The continuing dry again saw a reduction in accessions
to the shallow groundwater system/Upper Shepparton
Formation. This led to a Mid Term Review of the Sub
surface Drainage Program Research & Investigation
Strategic Plan. The review identified changes to the
drivers which influence the direction of the Sub surface
Drainage Program Research & Investigation Strategic Plan
Program and revised the Sub-surface Drainage Program
focus to:
a) Salt management
• Generation
• Mobilisation
• Impacts
b) Environment
c) Groundwater management (harmonisation of nuisance
and resource)
d) Communication of integrated delivery
Other outcomes of the review were:
• To change the name of the program to the
‘Groundwater and Salt Management Program’;
• Amendments to the Programs vision, mission and
objectives;
• Initiation of the following new and critical projects:
• Understanding water balance changes in the
Shepparton Irrigation Region;
• Investigation of salt mobilisation processes and
impacts for various Climate Change Scenarios;
• Develop a strategic approach to meeting the
key environmental feature objectives of the
Shepparton Irrigation Region Groundwater and
Salt Management Program.
ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
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